Le Nouvelliste: More than half of electorate were party agents

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Staff Writer

Haiti Sentinel

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) – More evidence of a massive electoral fraud operation had taken place is beginning to come to light with Le Nouvelliste suggesting that more than half of the electorate on October 25, 2015, were not common citizens but agents of political parties.

The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of Pierre Louis Opont distributed to political parties 915,675 party observer accreditation cards, called mandats, or mandates.

Journalist, Robenson Geffrard, using the highly-generous voter turnout estimation given by the Citizen Observatory for the Institutionalization of Democracy (OCID) of 30%, wrote this would mean more than half of the votes taken, were of manadateurs, party agents with mandates.

Voter turnout was much lower by the estimation of the coalition of election observers not paid by the international community. These observations groups of human rights, women’s rights and civil society organizations such as the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), the Solidarity of Haitian Women (SOFA), the National Council of Non State Actors (CONHANE) and NCO, say the participation rate was about 25% but inflated by multiple voting.

The Fraud

Not every political party had a need nor the capacity to manage the 13,700 mandates given to it by the CEP. For this reason, many are finding the electoral council complicit, if not grossly negligent, in the fraud.

Mandates allow an agent of a political party to be present inside of the 13,700 polling centers nationwide and be able to vote. Every political party did not participate in every race, furthermore, many did not have the resources to pay an agent to attend the entire day’s vote and verbal process, which takes place immediately thereafter.

A market was ready to purchase unused mandates and according to numerous witnesses, the ruling party, Parti Haitien Tet Kale (PHTK) and its ally parties, Bouclier, Ayiti An Aksyon (AAA), the United Democratic Convention (KID), purchased all, if not, the lion’s share.

Mandates were purchased at a price of 500, 600 or 1,000 HTG ($10, $12 or $20) according to the coalition of local observers not paid by the international community and Haitian journalists.

The mandates were given to individuals who voted multiple times, sometimes with different electoral cards and at different voting centers.

The scheme, The Sentinel, has been told:

An runner is given a pre-filled ballot for the PHTK candidate for president, Jovenel Moïse, and other candidates of the Tèt Kale regime. They are also given a card or mandate depending on their needs to cast a vote.

When the individual returns, to who is usually an interim agent, hand-picked mayors and local government officials throughout the country, and with a blank ballot, signaling they had submitted the pre-filled ballot and obtained a blank one at a voting center, they are then paid 1,000 HTG.

One runner can undertake this process multiple times.

*A previous version of this article said “more than half of voters” incorrectly. More than half of the electorate is more accurate.